100 Years ago, life expectancy in India was 25 Yrs and in US around 50 Yrs

Today it is 70 yrs and 78 yrs respectively

Good news - We will live longer

Bad news - Folks want to retire early so the risk is not having enough income during old age!

How to combat this? A thread - 1/n

People will retire at the age of 50-55 and then need a portfolio to help them survive for the next 20-30 years atleast

3 important things in my view

A good Sized corpus, Margin of Safety and Medical Insurance

Bajaj Housing Finance IPO is on the cards

Bajaj Finance Board is meeting on April 24 to discuss the same

Valuation of $10 billion with a tentative IPO size $1 billion is said to be on the cards

A thread on the company and the IPO - 1/n

Why the IPO?

The RBI classified Bajaj Housing Finance (BHF) in the category of NBFC - Upper Layer.

The company said it is mandated to list on or before September 30, 2025, as per the regulatory framework

A historic moment in the World Markets - The Bank of Japan ends 8 years of negative interest rates, making a historic shift with the first rate hike in 17 years!

This has officially ended the world’s only negative rates regime

A quick explainer on why this happened - 1/n

Some backdrop-

- If you deposit money in an Indian Bank today u get 6% interest yearly, so if you Deposit Rs 100, you get Rs 6 as interest
- But not in Japan! They had negative interest rates!

Gopal Snacks IPO opened today

Founded in 1999 and Dubbed as the Gathiya King, it sold 81.7L packets of its snacks everyday in 6MFY24!

This is my 100th thread since Feb 2023, so show some love :)

Everything you need to know about the company - 1/n

About Gopal Snacks -

- A FMCG Snacks company with a major presence in Gujarat
- Sells ethnic snacks - namkeen and gathiya | western snacks - wafers, snack pellets | Others - papad, spices, gram flour or besan, noodles, rusk and soan papdi
- 84 products | 276 SKUs

Renting V/s Buying a property - What to do? How to decide?

If you are buying a property - how to make the entire Loan amount free via SIPs (or) the entire interest on the Loan free via SIPs!

A practical case study , retweet so that more people can learn this!

Let's go - 1/n

Rent V/s Buy Debate -

- Renting doesn't give u a peace of Mind (personal view)
- Your owner can ask you to leave or throw you out anytime (have multiple friends who faced this in major and minor cities of India)
- If you are doing a temporary stay, then rent is good

Fall down seven times, stand up eight times is a very famous quote

This quote is most relevant for the founder of Astral Limited

This is the amazing story of Sandeep Engineer Sir who started Astral and has never given up despite many roadblocks including a near bankruptcy - 1/n

He shut down his first business (pharma) in 1984 after a major client collapsed

He founded Shree Chemicals in 1986 to manufacture bulk drugs and closed it in 1993

In 1991, he started another company—Kairav Chemicals - named after his son, to manufacture APIs

Forget Shark Tank, the real startup story is unfolding at IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) in the IIT Madras Research Park

It has an 80% success rate with Startups!

I was there recently and the facilities and startups inside caught my interest so I decided to dig deeper - 1/n

Quick History –

- Started with a 400 Cr debt, returned 600 Cr (principal+interest)

- IITMIC didn’t take any grants as they wanted to experience and showcase to startups on how to create a sustainable bootstrapped business – they grew from the ground up in a lean way!

In 2008 Warren Buffet invested in BYD instead of Tesla!

His bet made him a cool 30x plus BYD dethroned Tesla in EV sales for the first time ever in Q4-2023!

The story of this happened and why it happened!

A thread , Retweet for a wider reach - 1/n

Why are we talking about BYD?

- BYD overtook Tesla in Q4 2023 – Tesla delivered 484,507 Units while BYD delivered 526,409 Units
- BYD holds a mammoth 35% market share in China!
- Tesla was still the top seller - it sold 18.1 Lakh EVs in 2023 while BYD sold 16 L Vehicles

The journey of Polycab’s 81000 Cr market capitalization started with a crisis!

Inder Jaisinghani, the current CMD of Polycab was all of 15-years-old when his father passed away

A thread on the 'electrifying' story of Polycab - 1/n

History -

The Jaisinghani family ran Sind Electric Stores, a small hardware and electrical store in Mumbai, which sold fans, lights, switches, and wires

Soon, Inder Jaisinghani (IJ) realized the potential for substantial earnings in manufacturing them

I have read 140+ books in the last 4 years -

38 books in 2023, 30 books in 2022, 50 in 2021 and 34 in 2020 (List of all those books in the end)

List of all the books that I read in 2023 and my top 7 picks – 1/n

1 – Adrishya – Stories of Great Indian Spies
2 – Barbarians at the Gate
3 – Company Analysis Vol 9 by Dr Vijay Malik
4 – The Art of War by Sun Tzu
5 – The World for Sale – Money , Power and the traders who barter the Earth’s Resources
6 – The Hawala Agent by Smarak Swain

On NH62 connecting Jodhpur and Ahmedabad, 53 kms before the town of Pali, stands a shrine without a god in residence!

And yet, every year, scores of people pay their respects and prayers to the deity - a 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet (RNJ 7773)!

The crazy story of this shrine - 1/n

There is a bust and a photo of its owner, Om Singh Rathod

Popularly called the Bullet Baba temple - it is visited by young men after purchasing a new bike; or by women who seek blessings for their husband's safety on the roads

Every year, over 2 million medical tourists flock to India from 78 countries seeking top-notch treatment

That's like having the entire population of Slovenia visit for medical care!

A thread on the Medical Tourism in India - 1/n

What is it?

Medical tourism refers to the process of traveling to another country to access medical care and treatment

Once an abode of developed countries, now developing nations are aggressively promoting medical tourism in an effort to stimulate their economies.

Dr Dilip Mahalanabis and the discovery of ORS!

On 16 December, 1971, east Pakistan was liberated, forming what we know today as Bangladesh

India had recognized the government of Bangladesh

A thread - 1/n

Following the war, nearly 1 Cr people took refuge in India

As the monsoon arrived with heavy rains and floods, also came cholera with the lack of access to food,
clean water, and sanitation. The cholera epidemic killed over 5,000 people in the refugee camps alone.

Roughly half of all zippers in the world are stamped with the letters YKK!

YKK is a Japanese company with an enviable reputation

They produce roughly half of all the zippers made each year, which equates to about 700 Cr or 7 billion of them!

A thread - 1/n

YKK stands for “Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha,” Japanese for “Yoshida Company Ltd.”

Not only do these initials appear on zippers across brands, but they also appear on all different types of gear - a Hermes bag, a scuba-diving suit, bagpipe, or even a backpack!

R R Kabel IPO opens tomorrow

This IPO will get a lot of interest thanks to the spectacular stock rally of KEI and Polycab

A thread on everything about the business and IPO, some interesting data on market share as well -

Do retweet :) 1/n

About the company -

- R R Kabel was incorporated on February 6, 1995
- One of the leading companies in the Indian consumer electrical industry (comprising wires and cables and FMEG with an operating history of 20+ years in India

Reliance Industries' 46th AGM is underway , it started at 2 pm

Here are the takeaways -

A thread, RT for max reach :) 1/n

Set impossible goals and achieved them

RIL has cumulatively invested more than 150 Bn $ in the last 10 years – higher than any corporate in India and comparable to leading businesses in the World

Sudhir Sitapati is MD and CEO Of Godrej Consumer

Earlier He was ED, Foods & Refreshments at HUL

You know what was his first job?

Artificially inseminating cows thanks to a HUL project!

From that to leading an FMCG company now -

A thread - 1/n

In 1979, when HUL faced a problem of poor milk yields in the catchment of its ghee and milk powder factory in Etah, Uttar Pradesh (UP), the then chairman T. Thomas started sending management trainees to stay for 8 weeks to a village in Etah district

Titan first invested in Caratlane in 2016 at Rs 576 Cr valuation, now valuation is 17001 Cr!

29.5x in 7 years! An amazing 68% CAGR!

Titan to take its stake in Caratlane from 71.09% to 98.28% by Paying Rs 4621 cr

This values Caratlane at Rs 17001 Cr/2.04 Bn $

Details - 1/n

Financials of Carat Lane -

Fy14 - Rs 101 cr
Fy15 - Rs 127 cr
FY16 - Rs 141 Cr
FY21 - Rs 723 Cr
FY22 - Rs 1267 Cr
FY23 - Rs 2177 Cr

Reported a net profit in last 2 FYs

Img - @ajuniorvc @aviralbhat

Did you know that Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla Group had a sizeable stake in L&T once?

This is the story of 2 attempted hostile takeovers of L&T and the birth of Ultratech Cement!

A thread, do retweet :) 1/n

The late 1980s - The Indian corporate sector was assailed by a spate of corporate takeover attempts by two Dubai-based siblings—Manu and Kishore Chhabria.

Manu Chhabria had made a fortune in Dubai through his electronics trading activity.

TVS Supply Chain IPO Opens Tomorrow!

An IPO is coming from the TVS group after almost 3 decades. TVS Electronics had its IPO in 1994.

A thread on everything you need to know about the Business -

Do Retweet :) 1/n

- Incorporated November 2004
- Among India’s largest and fastest growing integrated supply chain solutions provider (revenues and revenue growth
- Promoted by TVS Group, one of the reputed business groups in India
- 72+ Fortune 500 customers v/s 54 in FY22

This is the story of how Rajni Bector turned Rs 20000 into Rs 5100 Cr from Ludhiana

The amazing story of Mrs. Bectors brand – one of the leading Indian biscuit & Bread manufacturers!

It is the largest supplier of buns to QSRs such as McD, KFC, BK, etc!

A thread, do retweet :) 1/n

The story starts in 1978 when Rajni Bector started an ice cream-making unit in her backyard with Rs 20000

In the 1980s India, there was one common thread that tied together most celebrations in Ludhiana - Mrs. Rajni Bector's famous Ice-Creams, Puddings, Cakes, Cookies